a journey of faith

Hebrews chapter 11 is a well-known passage about the faith to which we are being called. Let me start by saying something about the origin of this message that I shared this morning with the English ministry, and perhaps most of all I wanted to share it with that particular group, not the English ministry but that group from that English service, I shared that sermon because it was like the first time we explored this possibility of a service at 9 in the morning exclusively in English, and I felt from the Lord that it was like opening something new, something different, although we have already done similar things, and that it was a moment of certain weight , and wanted to mark it in the biblical framework of faith and understanding as a Church.

And yesterday afternoon while I was asking the Lord for wisdom about what to preach that would do justice to that moment, the image of Abraham came to mind when God calls him and tells him to leave his land and his family to a place that He would show her, and it seems to me that this is the moment in which this Church finds itself and the process that this Church has been living through the years, of which this stage is part and is a new manifestation of those instructions that we receive from the Lord from time to time to make changes and adjustments in our ministry.

I have told the people that this is not really my initiative, I do not think it is my initiative to change that 9 o'clock service to English and move our group in Spanish to 12 because if it were my initiative I would have more doubts about the ones I already have because faith is dying, it is like that, but I feel that the Lord is calling us to a new stage of faith, to a new process of faith. Marylin God bless you, great to see you, Marilyn blessings.

God is calling us to a greater journey of faith, he is declaring the new stage that we have to live and I say that this change is not an experiment for me, it is not like I am tinkering with the engine to see if something good comes out, I feel that we are in the very Presence of the Lord, that we are being directed by God to do something heroic, heroic and risky, and generous, and also detached, because our Latino people are being called to detach themselves from something that is very good and very nice, to come at 9 in the morning those who like to come at 9 in the morning for different reasons, and we are giving up that space, that piece of real estate of the Church for something that does not give us as much benefit personally not so much enjoyment on an emotional level, and we are doing them for purely clinical, evangelistic ministerial reasons seeking the interests of the Kingdom of God, we are not doing it because we kind of want to improve things a little or experiment with It is not something that gives us better results, but rather a divine voice, I believe that we are listening and that it advances us, and that it leads us further in what God wants for this Congregation and the destiny that God has for it.

The writer of Hebrews in that famous passage in Hebrews 11 that talks about faith, what faith is, talks about what Abraham did and how God reached out to Abraham, but before I go to Hebrews 11 let me better go to Go back and connect with the original moment found in Genesis chapter 12 at the beginning of Abram's career, spiritual journey. At this moment Abraham still, the h has not yet been added to his name at least in Spanish as it is translated because he is not yet that father of multitudes, his name has not been broadened yet, he is Abram, an ordinary Bedouin that God for some reason that only He knows decided to widen his name and widen his authority, and his spiritual reach.

But it says in chapter 12 of Genesis that: "The Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your land and from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you" and yesterday thinking I came to mind. Remember that scene of God speaking to Abraham and saying: Leave what is familiar, leave what is comfortable. Can you imagine? It is said that the elderly are very attached to their customs and their family territory, they do not like to abandon their habits or their common places, perhaps because they are in a fragile stage and do not want to venture into new things, but at 75 years of age or perhaps a little earlier God tells this man: Leave everything that is familiar to you, leave everything that is comfortable for you, leave everything that you feel you are in control, put it aside and abandon it, that is the instruction that God gives it, and I say that this moment is the essential moment in every journey of faith and in every life that lives by faith.

And that is why the writer of Hebrews chooses this moment as one of the great moments of faith, because every movement of faith in the life of a man or a woman of God involves precisely that, it involves something that is familiar to you, that is valuable, that gives you comfort, that gives you a sense of security and to put it aside to launch yourself into something that God has for you, and that is threatening, when you undress and strip yourself of something that you love because it gives you peace of mind because God has told you.

And that is the process that many of us are involved in throughout our lives. It may be a young person who leaves his country to study in the United States because he feels that God is calling him in that direction. It may be someone who decides to buy a house and ventures out, how am I going to pay the monthly payments? and all that that implies, the furniture, it can be a person who is going to marry another person and has to venture to share his life from now on in an intimate way with another human being with all that that implies, it can being a student who is half way through his career God is sending him in another direction and he has to make up a year of those years that he has already been studying or change everything completely, many different ways that through life God sometimes The world changes us and tells us: No, that is not the path, this is the path that you have to follow and one has to decide: am I going to obey God or am I going to stay in the place that is familiar to me and It is safe?

Am I going to bet on God? or I'm going to tell him: look Lord, you know what? Now at this point in the game what I want is to retire, be calm, don't bother me with challenges that are too big. I think that is what all of us have to decide.

That moment in which God tells Abraham: Look, get out of your land and your relatives, that is the moment in which if you are going to live a life of faith you are going to have to live many times throughout your life, and the We who have experienced those moments know that we have prayed and examined our motivations, and we have taken time to be before the Lord and examine ourselves honestly, if we have consulted with other people mature in the faith, if we have consulted the Word of God, if we have determined that we are not doing it because of some individual, personal motivation, and once we have gone through all those points and that voice is still there telling us: you have to do this, you have to do that, then throw yourself in the Name of the Lord and God will back you up.

And if you were wrong, God will make sure to straighten your path, and if you don't get to the place where you thought you were going to get, you'll get to another one that will be better because that's how God is when you seek His glory. Never stop living by faith, remember that, if you are going to be a genuine, authentic believer, the hallmark of your life will have to be living by faith and have those moments that will terrify you when you look into the abyss and see what is There you cannot see the bottom and they tell you: jump down, and you are going to do it in the Name of the Lord because the Word of the Lord says that your feet will not stumble on a stone, he will send his angels near you to keep you in all your ways.

When one places their faith and trust in the Lord and one is sure or more or less sure that one is doing things for the glory of God, do not fear, throw yourself in the Name of the Lord, and that is the life that God blesses and that God honors in which the Lord is greatly glorified.

I say that faith is the essential measure of the Kingdom of God, faith is the currency with which it is bought and sold in the Kingdom of God. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God, if you want to live by faith you will have to live by faith and not by sight.

Verse 38 of Hebrews chapter 10 says: "But the just shall live by faith" the rail on which the just rides is faith, it is to believe God when everything inside of you yells at you: do not do it, it is to question your flesh and listen to a higher voice, a higher principle that goes beyond your emotions and what your instincts tell you to do, that is faith, proceeding according to the manual, proceeding according to principles and not according to emotions.

When you enter the Christian race you understand that God is calling you to live according to principles much higher than your flesh and your emotions, your sense of security, your desire for the familiar, God is calling you to live as one takes a pill, you just take it with water and you don't even think about what it tastes like, you just take it because that's what you have to do.

And that is how we are navigating as a Church at this time, and that is how we have navigated through all the years that we have existed as a Congregation, it has always been by faith for the glory of the Lord and God has made us a Congregation that moves in that way, and that when we believe that everything is fine and normal God tells us: Wait, he trips us and tells us: Now you lack this, start again.

God demands so much of Abraham that he not only tells him: Go away from what is comfortable, but also tells him: To a land that I am going to show you, to the land that I will show you; In other words, he doesn't even tell him where he's going, he simply says: Start walking and on the way I'll tell you where you have to go, and that's something that if you want to live a life of faith you also have to learn.

I always think of the words of the Spanish poet, I think it was Antonio Machado who said: walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking; walker, there is no path, only trails, in other words the trace that a boat leaves when it goes, that it leaves behind, only trails in the sea, that's all. The path in the Christian life is made by taking one step ahead of the other walking by faith and you often do not know if you are going to end up in a dead end or if you are going to fall down a ravine, everything is possible and God does not totally guarantee you one thing or the other.

Faith is not being sure of everything but, despite your insecurity, keep walking in the Name of the Lord and I have learned that this is one of the most important models of your life. If you want to grow in the Lord, if God tells you something, do it. , if you do not have everything clear in front of you, try to seek all the light that you can and on the way God will find you, and He will open all the way in front of you.

The writer of Hebrews hundreds and hundreds, probably 1500 years later or so, meditating on how to illustrate what faith is to illustrate God's people writes one of the most exalted examples of faith. By the way, Abraham had two great moments of faith, one was that moment when he went for a walk in that land that he did not know, and he had a second moment that was when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, I spoke about that a few weeks ago back, and we saw that there also God asked him to sacrifice what he loved the most, which was that son that he had had at one hundred years of age, who was son and grandson at the same time, and at one hundred years of age God gave him He says: Now that son that I gave you sacrifice to me, and Abram, now Abraham decides to obey God.

The interesting thing is that Abraham has already learned some lessons, look, because when Isaac asks him: but dad, because Abraham has not been informed about what is going to happen, and Isaac tells him: we have the firewood, we have the fire, and where? is the lamb and Abraham does not tell him: you are the lamb, he says: God will provide, that is where the word Jehovah Jiré comes from, that is what he said in Hebrew, God will provide the lamb, my son.

And the writer of Hebrews says that Abraham thought that God was powerful so that if he ended up killing his son, God could resurrect him, so he had learned that although he does not know what is going to happen, he is not totally clear about the process. the Lord will be faithful and God will make sure that everything turns out for the best in the end, and we are like this and have been like this through the years, always trusting that God has all the pieces of this process that we are experiencing as a Congregation.

The writer of Hebrews in verse 8 of Hebrews 11 says: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going; by faith he dwelt in the promised land as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs of the same promise” and I told the brothers this morning that God loves tents; stores not in the sense of Marshall's and no, have no ideas here, ah, I knew, that's why I love stores so much, no, give it up, I already saw them looking maliciously at their husbands saying: you see, I told you! They are not that type of tents, they are tents.

But God likes shops, do you know why? because faith goes very well with tents, because tents are easy to set up and take down, they are very portable, very portable, and if you walk in faith you need to be ready to move anytime God gives you say. If you build a house with four bedrooms and a swimming pool in the desert, you have problems because the desert is made for simply moving, that's why the Bedouins live in tents because they are always moving from one place to the other, they have to do it. .

When God sent the people to Canaan, He sent them to live in tents, and I believe that He was giving them a lesson, a preparation in their lives so that they would learn to live in faith, and the tabernacle that He instructed them to build was not the temple. The final thing they would build when they entered Canaan was a structure that the priests and the Levites assembled in a moment, assembled and disassembled as we did with the piano here, the pulpit was easy to move, the columns were posts and the walls and the roof was animal skins, and the chandeliers and the things they used were easy to take apart and put in a receptacle and take it to the next place that God had to take them.

And God provided them with a column of smoke, a cloud of smoke and a column of fire to guide them at night and during the day, I say: wow, why didn't he give them a GPS? wow, how stingy the Lord was, He knew that GPSes were going to come, He would have given them something high-tech but no, He gave them a humble column of smoke and fire to guide them, so that they would learn to discern because many times God He does not give us perfect instruments to navigate because He wants us to exercise our discernment, He wants us to exercise our sense of dependence on Him, He wants us to inquire, to search, to be attentive to Him, to become fragile, and for this reason many times God does not give you instructions on all the things that He has for you, but He gives them to you bit by bit so that you learn to trust Him.

How does one develop the instincts of faith? It is so, God gives you little riddles and in the process of you guessing He exercises your understanding and that is what God does with us, that is why He will never give you one hundred percent of the instructions and the exact address where He wants to take you.

I have been all my life, I tell you, following a very imperfect compass within me about what God wants and whether you want it or not, by having me as Senior Pastor you are involved in that journey, in that personal spiritual journey because, thank you sister for affirming me that, at least there is one person who is listening to the sermon here; because since I was a child I have been living that Will of God and that cloud that guides and directs me, and I shared with the brothers this morning, I have felt that call of the Lord to look for something, something that is still before me.

And I told the brothers that I am like those birds that fly in the Atlantic Ocean and that travel great distances by a biological compass that tells them, it says that the birds read the stars, they orient themselves according to the stars, I don't ask how they do it, but they can instinctively navigate and orient themselves, and they travel in an ocean that has no marker just by orienting themselves and sometimes it can be magnetic say some scientists, orienting themselves by the magnetic currents of the Earth, don't ask them what it is what they are following or the physics behind all that, they are simply obeying a clock, a biological mechanism that God has installed in them but they orient themselves very well and do not get lost, and return.

The salmon go to the place where they are going to die where they were born, where they were born to die, and how do they get to that place? don't ask them, they have something written inside them and they are directed there. The children of God have a compass within us. Some have a witch, some have a compass inside of them (laughs), I prefer to have a compass at all times, you know? but God directs us.

I remember as a child having that sense of direction from the Lord that was, and I am still like Abraham looking for a land that God has to show me along the way. Some may think that this land is already the Lion of Judah, at sixty years old it is already where God wants me but I still feel that no, that there is still another part of that path, and everything I do I do as a partial experiment .

And what I have seen is that our Congregation has been guided in a way of building more and more, and God is adding different pieces to that structure for something that I do not quite understand but, as I have told you since I was a child in the Dominican Republic, I I have been a traveler like Abraham and perhaps many of you can say the same, but the first thing was, God took us from Alma Rosa there in the Dominican Republic and brought us to Brooklyn, New York, and I think that before that I was a traveler because My family comes from Africa and Spain, I have African blood, glory to God, and Spanish blood, because the blood of the peoples is in us and that is why the Latino people have something very special that God wants to do because they are also traveling people, we are Africa, we are Asia, we are Europe, we are Amerindian, all the races of the world are within us.

Yesterday I was at an English ministry family place and there was a couple, he's Asian and she's Central American, and even though she's Central American you looked perfectly Asian, and it was like she could easily be the race I'm not going to say a lot about them, they were exactly why? because Latin America has Asia, the Asians came through the Bering Strait, passing through North America until they reached South America, the Mayans and the Aztecs are of Asian blood, we have it and God has made us migratory people like this.

That is why I believe that this Latino people that God has brought from Central America, South America, the Caribbean, has something that God wants in this time and that this nation is going to be blessed by a pilgrim people because we are pilgrims and foreigners, to God He loves pilgrims and foreigners, there is something that God is, the human race, humanity is looking for something at this time and those who are going to help them are those who are pilgrims like them in faith, those who like Abraham are in search of a land that God is going to teach them what that land is.

That is what we, and many people here do not like us, but it is that God is the owner of the land and He knows how He distributes his land and gives it to whoever He wants, and we are not here to steal land from anyone but to bless this nation that has welcomed us, we do not want to conquer, we want to bless and we simply want to earn our bread and bless this nation because that is what God wants.

The migratory crisis of all those peoples that are migrating from the Middle East is a spectacle, those desperate ships where hundreds of people sometimes sink at the same time, there is something that God and humanity are searching for, they are migrating towards something, they are like birds that are migrating to their destination, there are movements today all over the place.

And the Bible says, Daniel says that at some point men would be traveling and there would be restlessness, and distances would shorten, and we are in that time now in the history of humanity because there is something that is happening, and God is calling us. to get in tune with that to be a pilgrim people, to be a tent people, and God is going to use that to people who are willing to migrate like this, to move like that, people who do not love the land, people who does not love their home, people who are willing to leave everything, and if God tells you: Leave everything, abandon everything because I have something for you, you say: amen Lord, where do you want me to go? show me the way, these are the people God is going to use, the people who are willing to part with what they love and who are willing in an instant to get in tune with God's call on their lives.

And that is why God has called us at this time when it seemed: okay, we have already invested millions of dollars in building these buildings and we have invested in furniture, and in technology, and in a number of things. We could say: okay Lord, now, how good we are, we are going to make three tents and here we stay like the disciples on the mount of transfiguration and the Lord tells them: No, no, no, there is work to do downstairs, we are not we can rest on our laurels, where the glory is one wants to stay where the glory is but God says: no, you are a pilgrim, you are a foreigner, you are called to live in process, to go to the next stage of glory .

God always has more glory for us. How do you say that little Pentecostal game, remember? Later I remember but we say those things, and to his glory more glory, who lives? Christ and His glory, more glory, we say that but we often do not understand what we are saying, and many times we want to grab the glory we have and the Lord tells us: No, you have to let go of that so that I give you more glory , and that threatens us. It's like those games on TV that tell you: okay, you won $500, do you want to risk the $500 to win the car? and you are: hey, what do I do, do I lose the $500, do I win the car? and you have the option, and if you are willing to risk the $500, well, very possibly you will win the car, the thing is that God does not guarantee that you will win the car, perhaps you will lose everything but you have to risk it in the Name of the Lord. Glory asks you to strip yourself.

God calls us as a Church: let's never fall in love with what we have brothers and I know the sacrifice that is being asked of the brothers who come to the 9 o'clock service above all, because it is like all this work that we are doing and how good , we have worked, we have bled to have this place and now we have to drop a half of that and then go to the service? But I believe that when we do that in obedience to the Lord God, he does not fall short, he blesses us and gives us much more.

But it is so, leave your land and your relatives, what is familiar to you, what is comfortable for you, enter the new stage of glory that God wants for your life and the Lord will take care of it. I believe that if we are faithful to the Lord at this moment in our development as a Congregation and obey the Lord, we have no guarantee of success but believe that by doing so we are opening a space for God to use us in a greater way and amplify our space as Congregation the Lord will bless us and we will be happy that we have done it, that is the journey of faith.

I told them that throughout my life it has been like this and you are involved in a very interesting drama because my life, your life, and I dare to say these things at this stage of my life, I have kept them for many , many years and I feel tremendously uncomfortable doing it, I confess, I don't like to talk about myself, I don't like to talk about my personal dramas and even less I like to take risks, or risk my image before an audience and that's what I'm doing in these moments when telling him that I have lived decades since I was a child believing that God has something to do through my life, and that God has shaped this Congregation and my life within it, and is leading us through a drama that we have not yet We understand what the end of it is, but I believe it will be for the glory of God.

And you know what scares me? that one day when I die my coffin is in front of here and someone is saying: Pastor Miranda always believed that God called him to something and even though he didn't arrive, and that's where the nightmare remains, I'm honest. And that's why many times I have repressed that vision because I don't like to make myself fragile, I don't like to take risks in front of people, but on the other hand I have felt from God that if I don't do it I could be repressing the vision because the Bible says : state the vision and write it in tables.

And many times you have to declare the vision by faith for the vision to come to life, if you don't declare it, you don't risk it, the vision remains stagnant and I am declaring it in front of you, I am declaring an intuition that is all, that is a voice. I do not believe that Abraham necessarily heard the Voice of God from heaven physically speaking to him and telling him: Abraham get out of your land and from your relatives, who knows if it was a dream he had? like the dream that I had that God would take us from our land and from our relatives in Cambridge, it was a dream, we Pentecostals like to say I had a vision to raise the category, it was not a vision, for me a vision is something you see in a trance.

It was a dream and it could be that I ate too much rice and beans the night before, nothing guarantees that it was a vision, a revelation from God, for me it was something so real, so vivid, with meaning that I saw, I think so, God he showed me the face of the Lion of the tribe of Judah on the rooftops of the financial area of Boston, that area that we now see from the fourth floor with a number of giant poisonous spiders on those buildings, skyscrapers of Boston and the face of the Lion of the tribe of Judah that I later understood was the Lion of Judah looking and exercising authority over those demonic entities, and my hand from below pointing towards the lion saying three times: you are the Lord, you are the Lord, you are the Lord, and that was the origin of our move from Cambridge to Boston, leaving our land and our kin to go build buildings and deal with rubble, and a neighborhood full of crime and other things, and we have seen that God put an H on our name with I love Abraham because he has enlarged us, he changed our name.

What do you prefer, Central Baptist Church or León de Judá Congregation? I believe that this second name is more dignified, and that was also part of God's revelation, there is something in that name Congregation León de Judá, because I believe that in this time of history that we are living; Christ has many names throughout history and the Bible, there are dozens of names that apply to Him: The Lamb, the pearl of great price, the Rose of Sharon, many names.

I believe that at this moment in history the Name applied to Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, why? because this earth has been given to Satan power to move like never before and there must be a lion that roars and drives away the power of the enemy. The Church of Christ at this time in history has to be a lion or a lioness, the times of the lamb that was another moment.

When Christ comes, He comes as a warrior and He comes with His cloak covered in blood, He comes with a sword coming out of His mouth. The Christ that John sees in Revelation is not a half-baked Christ there, He is a being that terrifies when you look at Him, a sword comes out of His mouth, He is burnished bronze, He is terrible, so much so that John's legs melt and he collapses. faint. That is why I am so annoyed by these cowardly evangelicals here in this nation who want to win people over simply with a kitten's howl when what God wants is a lion's roar.

I believe that God changed our name, changed our identity, changed our ministry, God widened us. As he told Abraham: I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea that if they can be counted, your offspring can be counted, I will be with you, those who curse you I will curse, those who fight against you I will fight against them, God we, we dared to leave our land and our relatives.

And I have always been leaving my land and my family, there are so many things, I am not going to go into those details, I did it this morning, but they are moments throughout my life that God has called me over and over again to leave what was comfortable for me and enter another stage of my life.

I am going to share something that perhaps I have not shared before, when I was at Princeton my area of study, my concentration was international relations, international politics, I wanted to be a diplomat, I wanted to enter the United States Department of States, work in the diplomatic area, and that is why I entered a department, the Woodrow Wilson School, which was a school within the university and I was preparing to enter that direction, and halfway after having invested a lot of time in that area, God changed me. the course and through a university professor that I met, Alcadio Díaz Quiñonez, I changed and decided, when I started to do my doctorate I changed my concentration and entered the area of Spanish-American literature, Romance languages, direction and glory to God because that prepared me .

I always tell people that one of the best ways to prepare for the ministry is to study literature, because in literature one learns to appreciate the characters and you are a group of very interesting characters, each one of you, know the characters and analyze them. It is one of the most important skills that one has and you are very interesting characters, one day I would love to write a book "Characters of the Lion of Judah", I would try to hide them completely because there are some revelations there that are (laughs) terrible.

But I believe that the Lord was taking me, it has always been like that. When you live in faith, when you live in faith, God is always taking all the pieces from your board and when you think you already have them all well located, he slaps them and they fly across the floor, and he tells you: Put it back together, so it is necessary to live in the Christian life.

And we have seen that time and time again when one launches in faith, brothers, seeking the Lord God, he never disappoints us. One of the last; I'm boring you, give me a couple more minutes (laughs), let me. Do you know that God always speaks through metaphors? and as Christ says: He who has ears to hear, listen, what happens is that God speaks to us and we do not see it because we are short-sighted and clumsy.

But I am convinced after analyzing that process for quite some time, since God put me in a metaphor of faith through these screens, because that is how God trains His servants and His children, and one has to learn to to see and to understand that at this time when we are undertaking this other journey of faith, to change the arrangements of the Church in terms of its services, because the truth is that as I told you before that was agony for me personally, to risk it.

From China, brothers, a Chinese named Sherlock, where do you come from, the risk one takes when doing this kind of thing, but God trains us like this and I tell them: I tell him, Lord, don't let me break my head in front of this town and thanks to the Lord, I believe that the Lord took me well and that we are going to see even more beautiful things to come, that other screen, it is already here, what happens is that there is a piece that we have to install to put it, but that's how God works, He puts us through exercises of faith, it's like training a warrior, training an athlete.

How does an athlete train? through efforts, through artificial ways of training the muscles and thus prepares for the real battles, and I believe that this was as a part, the playful character of God is always involved. I see God in so many things throughout my life, scenes that I am not projecting prophetically, it is that I believe that this is how God speaks. I believe that God is always winking at you behind the scenes, He does not fully reveal himself but winks at you from time to time and I believe that that thing on the screens was God winking at me to show me something to jump into sometimes by faith, you have to travel great distances to get what He wants and you have to take risks in the Name of the Lord. If your heart is clean and pure, you are doing it for the glory of Him.

If you have prayed, if you have cried, if you have consulted, if you have examined yourself, if you want the glory of God, if you want to bless others, if you are doing something that is contrary to what you would like to do in your flesh, if you put all those things together and they tell you: get involved, keep going because that is the journey of faith, that is how you find the Will of God.

Many people ask me: Pastor, how can I know the Will of God? That's like asking what is the origin of the universe? It is very complex, it has many pieces but some of them are like that and the walk of a man of God is quite complex, but in the long run you have to throw yourself into the abyss. There comes a time when you already looked everywhere, you examined it, there is nothing to see, then stop thinking and throw yourself in the Name of the Lord, and the Lord will send all His angels to guard you in all your ways .

I ask the Lord that at this stage, I am done with this, we are at a time in history in which humanity is in a process, it definitely has something to do with the last times, I am not going to say that Christ is going to come tomorrow but it's close, it's close and I believe that humanity is looking for something and that we are living in a time when we are here in Boston but all around us there are raging and manifesting forces in the rest of humanity that are conspiring to take it all to the top, and that this is a moment that if not the last of humanity is an incredibly epic moment, of epic proportions, if you don't know what you mean look it up in the dictionary, of extraordinary proportions, a tremendous weight .

When one looks at everything that is happening in the world at this time, as I say the great migrations from the Middle East, Islam enraged and rising up to judge the nations and keep them in checkmate, all those nations that deny the sacred that they say that God is dead but now this horde is rising that says no, that God is alive and they are going to impose it whatever it takes with their violence.

Nuclear war, the rise of China, North Korea with its threat to become a nuclear power, Iran on the other hand, Israel in difficulties with the Palestinian movement that does not leave the nations alone, this nation that has lost its credibility in the world. Before, the United States was the stabilizing element in the world, it is no longer like that, the United States has already lost its credibility, its prestige because it has sold itself to secularism and experimentation and has lost its direction, it has lost its clarity and the United States itself is here. in crisis, a crisis of terrible leadership like never before, a division of the different groups that constitute it, a crisis of the family, of youth, a terrible racial crisis, an epidemic of crime and violence.

Chicago this past weekend 64 people injured and 11 dead in one weekend alone and this summer is expected to be the most terrible summer in Chicago history for all the gang violence this nation right now has a of the most terrible and highest rates of violence and crime of all the civilized and industrialized nations of the world, terrible, something is happening in the world.

And God requires a Church, a Church that He can use to give counsel to this world. I believe that the governments of the world are going to come to the Church to seek wisdom, advice, God is leading the world to a crisis, the self-sufficient secular rational man is being humiliated and is being shown that he does not have the solution to his own issues. Man has always believed that the next stage of his development will bring the solution to the ills of the world; industrial time, the scientific revolution, the space age, the discovery of atomic energy, everything is coming, coming, coming.

Before the first and the second world war, people believed that the industrialization of the world was going to bring all, and that the scientific age, and that religion was no longer necessary, came the second world war and the first with all the destruction of tens of millions of people and that vain dream of man's self-sufficiency collapsed. Man is still insisting that he does not need God and God is humiliating him, humiliating him and he is already reaching his final extreme.

And I know that the Church of Christ has a heroic role to play in recent times, and God is going to need pilgrim churches, churches that allow themselves to be guided by Him, churches that listen to Him, churches with ancient technology, of the spirit, and of the power of God and the wisdom of God to advise these nations that are being led to a blind alley, and we want to be that Church, we want to be part of that people that God is going to use in the last times, in this time in history, but we are required to live a borderline spirituality, an uncomfortable spirituality, an insomniac spirituality, I think that is how the word is said, of people who do not sleep well because they are thinking about the Kingdom.

If you do not sleep well it is because generally, and you are with God many times it is because you are thinking and scheming, I do not sleep well because I am always scheming about the things of the Kingdom of God, God wants people who, like soldiers, sleep lightly because they are at war.

How did the Lord God divide Gideon's warriors, the three hundred that were left of thirty thousand at the beginning, the ones that licked the water like dogs I think it was? no, that was it, wasn't it? that is to say, those who were simply watching while, those who knelt down not because they were putting their heads in the water and had to look around, those who licked the water like that simply because they wanted to have their eyes around, that was what God chose, Don't confuse me Lucy, it's okay.

Not because? Because God chose the heart, God said to Gideon: Take them to the water and I will prove them to you. Do you know that before choosing those who are going to be in His army, God tests them, tests their hearts to see if they are willing to leave everything? God is not going to work through comfortable congregations, congregations that sell themselves to the world, congregations that look at the latest marketing doctrine to then guide their preaching, that are willing to sell the cross or the insignia of the Kingdom, or the scandal of the crucifixion to please the world, God is going to look for those who say: no, we are going to stand firm in what God said because that is what He said and we are going to obey it to the last, and if we perish we perish.

That is the Church that God is going to use in this time, right now they are being tested, right now they are being tested and only those who are willing to sell their life and despise it to death, and to obey the scandalous claims of God, only those will to be used in the conquest, and I beg you who listen to me to live at that level of authenticity and integrity.

When you hear me propose a new project here, understand, I am not doing it because I simply need to be busy with something, because I am restless by nature, I do it because I believe that I am listening from the Lord and you join in, live that life, be generous with your money, with your time and brothers I tell you the truth I am not going to change, if you get upset with the modus operandi of this Church you are going to have problems because this is not going to change, it is going to get even hotter, this Church needs warriors.

We are not looking for evangelicals, we are looking for warriors, we are looking for people of the Kingdom, we are looking for pilgrims and foreigners, we are looking for people from the tent, people who move in an instant, people who sleep lightly because war can begin in at any moment and they have to get up right away and sleep with their weapons next to them, generous people, people who don't love money, who don't love the appreciation of others, who don't love prestige, who don't love comfort, who don't love their profession, that they have delivered everything at the feet of the Lord and tell him: Father, do what you want of it, and these are the people that God is going to bless, he is going to support and he is going to even prosper as he prospered the Hebrews , that is the call of God for our time.

What we are doing is honestly minimal for what God already has, the way in which God has blessed us and what He still has ahead of us, there is a land where God wants to take us, there is a land where God wants to take us and has been leading through all these faith moves we've made, and like Abraham we're still on our way.

How many more times will we have to dismantle the tent? I can't tell you, but I believe that every time we do it, God is going to bless us, affirm us and show us that it was from Him, he is going to vindicate us in what we are looking for.

I bless this Church and open myself to the purpose of God, and we say: Lord, whatever You want, whatever You want from us, help us only to live up to the call, help us to live at the level of greatness that You have for us. we. Stand up and open your heart and spirit to the call of God in this time, say amen to the purposes of the Lord, the plans of God.

Tell him: Lord, I want to be a bird of prey, I don't want to be a turkey walking with its head down, I want to be an eagle that soars in the heights with eyes that see miles away and pounce on the prey, and they grab it with their claws, and follow the flight, that they live in the high places. God wants eagles at this time, God wants birds of prey for His glory.

Ask the Lord to sharpen your instincts as a warrior, to sharpen your instincts as a warrior bird, a warrior, a hunter for the Kingdom of God, that is the call, embrace it right now. Tell him: Lord, make me one of Your warriors, make me one of Gideon's three hundred, make this Church one of the three hundred that You are going to use.

Enter our destiny, we give you our life. Young man: give your dreams of greatness and self-fulfillment to the Lord, give him your appetite for money and fame, and prestige, housewife give your children to God, give your marriage, give him your body, your mind, your intellect to the Lord, I put everything, I don't think I have much to give to the Lord anymore because everything I believe I have is at His feet and if there is something Father, reveal something to me so I can throw it at your feet too. Let us pour out our life like a libation, water poured out before the feet of the Lord and live at that level.

Give the Lord everything you love about yourself, all your personality characteristics, everything you love about your temperament, your personality, your habits, give it all to the Lord, tell Him: Father, what you don't like, I that you don't like me I give it to you, get rid of it Father even if it hurts but I need to travel lightly and I get rid of all weight that limits me in my career of faith so that my marriage can be a light marriage, blessed, agile, so that my praise is a clear praise, so that my sharing of the Gospel has the anointing of Your Father, I strip myself of everything that I love about myself, including, I give you everything that I love most about my own being, I I place everything at Your feet so that my home is a home where You dwell, and through which You can speak and in which You can dwell, and that You can bless.

This Church, Father, strip us of every weight that is not pleasing to You Lord, strip us of it so that we can walk lightly and run this race, walk this pilgrimage Lord lightly before You, nimbly before You, we give you all that we are, everything we have, everything we love Father, everything we consider ours we strip of it right now, all sense of ownership, we lay it all at Your feet, serve us Lord and do what you please with this people.

We promise you to live lightly and take things lightly, not to become attached to anything in this world Lord so that Your Name may be glorified, Your Name may be exalted and Your Will be done on Earth and in history as it is done in heaven, we give you our lives, we give you the Lion of Judah Congregation for the glory and honor of Your Name, thank you, amen Lord.